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ALTIPLANO ULTIMATE CONCEPT

2 MM TO CHANGE WATCHMAKING

It is proof of Piaget’s unending quest for infinite slenderness and technical virtuosity. It redefines the rules of ultra-thin watchmaking. It is the result of years of painstaking research and development. At just 2 mm, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept has been crowned as the thinnest hand-wound watch in the world.

THE ULTIMATE CHALLENGE OF FINESSE

The Altiplano Ultimate Concept began four years earlier as an idea, and an ambition. The Manufacture assembled some of its finest engineers, watchmakers and designers and asked a simple question: “How can we reduce thickness to the very limits of feasibility, while making no sacrifice to reliability or aesthetic appeal?” The challenge was set.

To meet the challenge, the most talented men and women in their professions would have to find innovative new solutions. To save precious tenths of a millimetre, they chose a new ultra-rigid and robust cobalt-based high-tech alloy, stopping the watch from buckling due to its extreme slenderness. They erased the distinction between movement and case, by making the case both an exterior component and the movement mainplate. And, discovering solutions to challenges that had never before been set before, they filed five patents for the technological innovations essential to making the Altiplano Ultimate Concept possible.

INNOVATIONS IN THINNESS

Reimagining completely many of the fundamentals of watchmaking, Piaget mounted several ball-bearing mechanisms directly onto the frame, such as the the barrel. This features an innovative and distinctive construction and was designed without a cover or a drum. At 9 o’clock, also mounted on a ball-bearing mechanism, the construction of the regulating organ has been entirely redesigned. The balance-wheel bridge has vanished. The balance wheel and spring are pinned up to the collet and inverted, meaning that the balance wheel appears above the balance-spring. The absence of an index assembly is compensated by an adjustable balance-spring stud. This set of solutions enables a significant reduction in the thickness of the regulating organ, while guaranteeing its precision, isochronism, and a power reserve of no less than 44 hours.

A watch that breaks so many rules was never expected to have a traditional crown. Instead, a flat-shaped “telescopic” crown is recessed smoothly against the case band. The control device is equally unprecedented, with selective control of a time-setting and winding device. For maximum thinness, it features an “infinite” screw positioned directly at the same level as the toothed wheel instead of being superimposed.

Even the watch crystal has been rethought for record-breaking thinness. Integrated directly within the case, despite being only 0.2mm thick, it still provides a water resistance of 3 ATM.

AND PIAGET CREATED… THE ULTRA-THIN

The history of Piaget’s dedication to ultra-thin watchmaking was born with the Maison in 1874 in La Côte-aux-Fées. In 1957, Piaget presented the world the ground-breaking manual-winding 9P calibre, measuring just 2 mm thick. Thanks to this and an ultra-thin automatic movement launched just three years later, Piaget would usher in a new era of luxury ultra-thin watches. Measuring in its entirety the same thickness as the 9P calibre, Altiplano Ultimate Concept is the worthy heir of a long tradition of watchmaking excellence.